


The Red String of Fate Binds Us Together

by savanting



Category: Mulan (2020)
Genre: Chinese Mythology & Folklore, F/M, Friends to Lovers, One Shot, Post-Canon, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26332132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/savanting/pseuds/savanting
Summary: Matchmakers and marriage are things Hua Mulan might have despised once upon a time, but now she has a man named Honghui at her side. Love is too simple of a word to describe how she feels. One-Shot.
Relationships: Chen Honghui/Fa Mulan, Chen Honghui/Hua Mulan, Honghui/Mulan
Comments: 21
Kudos: 279





	The Red String of Fate Binds Us Together

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own any Disney properties, such as _Mulan_ (2020). This is just my "what-if" about what might occur if Honghui and Mulan decided to marry eventually. Enjoy!
> 
> The red string/thread of fate comes from East Asian beliefs, particularly found in Chinese mythology.

Mulan couldn't sit still. Her limbs felt jittery, wracked with nervous energy.

As she and Honghui sat before the matchmaker, the older woman sniffed the air as if something disgusted her. Mulan wished she could have slipped out and away from under that scrutinizing gaze, but she could not – since her betrothed just sat there, a pleasant and patient smile on his face, as if the matchmaker did not look like a painted frog that had just swallowed an unsatisfying fly.

“I do not give my blessing for this match,” the matchmaker said, and Mulan sucked in a breath like a wound had just been inflicted upon her by an enemy’s sword. She was not surprised – the woman was known for being spiteful and holding a grudge – but Mulan’s status as a war hero did not pass through these doors. Inside the matchmaker’s receiving room, Mulan was just a girl who had too little finer qualities to be recommended as a proper bride.

But before Mulan could open her mouth and cause more of an uproar, Honghui’s hand found hers under the table and squeezed, gently, once and then twice. A warning and a comfort rolled into one.

Mulan stared steadily ahead as she allowed Honghui to handle this hurdle with his more personable skills.

“My lady,” Honghui said, a hint of reverence to his voice as he addressed the matchmaker, “I realize I am a poor farmer’s son and that I cannot offer the kind of life that Hua Zhou would want for his daughter, but please reconsider.”

The matchmaker’s eyes snapped to Honghui and settled on him. Even Mulan could tell what she was thinking: _”The problem is not with you, young man, but this wench you want to marry.”_ But the matchmaker could not voice such a thing aloud when it would mean great disrespect to the Chen family.

Honghui’s hand squeezed hers again, an encouraging sign.

The matchmaker’s next words were careful, as if she were side-stepping over hot coals. “The Hua family is of great standing, that is true, but Hua Mulan has already passed through these doors without a match. She is unmarriageable, given her age and also the fact that her younger sister is already to be wed.”

Honghui actually laughed a little. “Excuse me, my lady, for that outburst of mine. But the emperor has granted his blessing to us already while we were in the Imperial City. Are you saying that the emperor is not allowed to do such a thing? Or that he made the mistake in believing Hua Mulan is fit for marriage?”

Mulan kept her eyes trained on the table, but her head whirled with the words that had just slipped out of Honghui’s mouth. When had the emperor given them his blessing? Had there been a conversation she had not been privy to? Or…

Mulan’s eyes flitted to Honghui, whose smile now bore a hint of smugness.

It seemed her betrothed was quite the master of voicing deceptions with a serious face.

The matchmaker’s mouth squirmed; she obviously did not like the way this conversation was going. “We must always heed the word of our dear emperor, bless him all his days,” the woman relented. “However, there is the matter of a dowry—”

“Hua Zhou himself has graced us with the knowledge that Hua Mulan brings with her the sword the emperor gifted her as well as the sum paid for her duties to the empire,” Honghui said smoothly. “As my family comes from very little, we accept this dowry as suitable.”

Mulan almost couldn’t contain her smile as she watched the matchmaker’s face scrunch in a very unpleasant manner.

“Very well, then,” the matchmaker said after a few moments. “I give my blessing to this match.”

While the matchmaker lifted herself to her feet, Honghui and Mulan exchanged triumphant smiles. Miracle of miracles, they were to be wed after all.

*

“You were confident back there,” Mulan said as they collected ingredients in the market for a stew her mother would be making for ‘good luck’ that night. Honghui and Mulan couldn’t be alone on their own unchaperoned, but with the bustling village around them they could spare a few shared words with each other under the buzz of sound. “You’re lucky you didn’t get struck down by divine lightning for telling a lie about the emperor like that.”

Honghui just smiled easily in a way that Mulan knew was only for her, and that knowledge warmed something inside her belly. “All that matters is that you forgive me for my deceptions. We’re in this together now, you know.”

Mulan shook her head. “You’re not a child I can scold for wrongdoing,” she said as she picked up shoots of green onions for her basket of vegetables.

Honghui slipped carrots and potatoes into the basket. “How right you are. I would just laugh at you if you came after me with a broom like my mother used to do.”

“I could have you spar with me at dawn,” Mulan said, “since I know you cherish your sleep far too much.”

“I do like my sleep,” Honghui admitted, “so that would be punishment indeed to rise with the sun just to get myself pushed to the dirt under your brutal care.”

“I’m not brutal!” Mulan’s voice nearly carried through the square, but thankfully no one paid too much attention. The villagers were accustomed to Mulan’s eccentricities by now; they usually just ignored her.

“Shhhh,” Honghui said, bringing a finger to his lips as if he were telling a child to be quiet. “Use your lady’s voice.”

All that comment succeeded in doing was to make her elbow him in the ribs.

*

That night, long after Honghui had returned to his lodgings in the village, Mulan couldn’t sleep. She tossed and turned until she fell into an uneasy sleep.

And there, in her dreams, stood a red-robed man with long black hair. If she squinted just right, she imagined he looked a little like Honghui, but that may have been her subconscious playing tricks on her. The man smiled at her softly before holding out his hands, in which lay chrysanthemums of white. The flowers overflowed from his hands, and Mulan reached out to catch them.

“This is my promise for you,” the man said. “May you know bliss, Hua Mulan.”

Then she awoke to find dozens of petals and flowers scattered across her bedroll.

And Mulan couldn’t stop smiling.

*

“Yue Lao came to me in my dreams last night,” Mulan said to Honghui the next morning before their usual sparring match.

“Oh?” Honghui looked at her as if she were simply teasing him. “And what did the great matchmaker god tell you?”

“He said I would be happy,” Mulan replied. “With you.”

Then she held out one of the chrysanthemums to Honghui, and this time the humor fell from his features before he took the flower and twirled it in his hand thoughtfully.

“That can be arranged,” he said after a moment, his voice growing rough as if he might begin to cry.

“It’s a promise,” Mulan said, simply, because she would be his and he would be hers – and they would be loyal to each other, brave beside one another, and true to their hearts – always.


End file.
